Monday, April 1, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
The dust has settled in many ways at the Las Vegas Jaycees Senior Mobile Home Community.
The park opened 2 1/2 years ago with the first 157 of 466 homes being moved into the 80-acre low-rent facility at Jones Boulevard and Harmon Avenue.
Dust flew as crews worked to develop the remaining 309 lots in phases two and three, while the first residents breathed a sigh of relief that the project, delayed by years of legal squabbles, was coming to fruition.
Today, the picturesque park that was initiated in 1979 with a land donation from the Bureau of Land Management is far from the dusty desert development it once was.
"We don't get much dust anymore, except on real windy days," said Lucy Eason, 73, a longtime board member and one of the first residents. "Apartments were built across from us and that also has helped keep the dust down."
Dust has settled
The dust kicked up by seniors rushing to find a home there in 1993 and '94 also has settled.
"It was a madhouse the first couple of years, with, at times, five to 10 move-ins a day," said William Cottrell, director of the Clark County Housing Authority, which manages the facility with a budget based on 5 percent of the rent receipts.
"Now, things are fairly routine. We've been at 100 percent for about 1 1/2 years now. Occasionally someone dies (three in the last 18 months, not counting those who moved to a convalescent center or hospital and died there) and a home is put up for sale. Then we go through the qualifying process again."
To qualify, mobile home owners must be 55 or older and make less than $22,500 annually. They pay $167 a month for a lot, compared with more than $350 in privately owned parks.
"We have a waiting list today -- people want to move here because the park is everything that (officials) promised it would be," said Eason, who became a board member a dozen years ago because she was upset with the constant delays.
That struggle began in the early 1980s when a private mobile home park owner filed a lawsuit, claiming he would lose business. After several years of legal wrangling, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Jaycees.
BLM rules changed
But during that period, the BLM changed its rules, limiting the donated land to just animal use. As a result, Nevada's congressional delegation had to push through legislation to allow the land to once again be used for a seniors mobile home park.
Other delays included redesigning the park to comply with new Clark County drainage and utility ordinances and conducting a study to protect the desert tortoise.
Still, the $6.2 million project was built without cost to taxpayers.
But during the years of delays, more than half a dozen of the park's elderly board members, who would have qualified to live at the complex, died without ever realizing their dream.
The most noted of them was Wilma Spangler Rogers, whose ashes were spread on the grounds in July 1991, making her the unofficial first resident. The library in the park's recreation center is named for the woman credited with keeping the project alive during its darkest days.
It is said that Rogers' friendly ghost protects the grounds and welcomes her living neighbors. But even her haunting spirit cannot keep out the one element that plagues seniors just about everywhere -- juvenile delinquents.
Wall could be higher
"Naturally, we have some vandalism," Eason said. "Instead of going around the park, kids hop one 6-foot wall, cut through our community and hop the wall on the other side.
"I know the wall is as high as the county will allow, but at times I wish we could build it just a little higher."
She said another minor problem is that the trees and shrubs in the relatively new facility have not reached maturity and probably will not in the lifetimes of many of the current residents.
Still, Eason said, the park is attractive, complete with a swimming pool and security gate, and there are "all sorts of activities going on practically every day" at the recreation center.
Also, residents can take advantage of the "Meals on Wheels" program and other services designed specifically for the older crowd.
"We have a very strong Neighborhood Watch program," said Eason, a co-block captain. She noted that some Neighborhood Watch members patrol the park in golf carts donated by the Jaycees.
The Jaycees still have an active role in the park. Its members serve on the board, alongside senior homeowners, helping to develop the rules that govern the facility. The housing authority enforces those rules but has no input in their development.
"The community has lived up to all of its expectations, so much so, we are visited by officials from Washington, D.C., and other places who want to build their own communities based on ours," Eason said.
"I believe many of us appreciate what we have because of the long years of struggle it took to build this place. We haven't forgotten that, and we are proud that we can make this community as nice as we want it to be."
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